St. Paul's On-The-Hill Episcopal Church

The Rev. Stephen C. Holton, Rector

Advent 4; December 20, 2009

Micah 5:2-5

Luke 1:39-45

SAYING YES TO GOD'S DREAM

It begins in quiet. Mary's dream with God or God's dream with her – begins in quiet, and darkness, as all dreams do.

She hears of God's dream of a Savior for the World, of God coming into the world Himself as a person – and she says yes to the dream. Yes – dream with me – she says to God. “Be it to me, O Lord, according to your will.”

Dream the dream with me, O God, she seems to say. I will help. I will join in. I will bear the child. I will bear You – Lord; she says.

She says yes to the dream – as He asks us all to say yes to His dream, and then waits with bated breath while we think about it.

She says yes to God's dream for her, for the world, in the dark of the night, in Bethlehem of Judea, which is one of the least of all cities, one of the little clans of Judah.

Then right after she said Yes, it says: “In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.”

It says; she “set out and went with haste.” I guess she had no time to wait. I guess she had no time to spare. I guess she had big news! So she went with haste.

In spite of being scared and overwhelmed she went with haste. Or perhaps she was not scared and overwhelmed at all, because she was not full of the usual, overwhelming news that we all get from time to time. She was filled with the Energy and the Life of the Lord, so she went with haste! She was propelled by Him, filled with the desire to spread this Word which would soon be the Word made flesh spreading the Word of God.

So she went with haste the way you or I might go if we were filled with news too big for words, but too filled with good news that we could not hold back, even if, like Mary, she was not yet properly married and the news would bring shame; even if – like her – we felt pretty unequipped to bring about the dream that God has shared with us. Perhaps this is why she went away, and told someone else, someone she might not usually talk to.

Sometimes we might hold back with such news. But sometimes we can't, if the news is still too good and the job so big that we have to start now no matter what might happen.

So Mary goes with haste.

But she does not share her news right away. She does not share it the minute she walks in Elizabeth's door.

First Elizabeth greets her; Elizabeth who had already been blessed with God's dream too.

She is filled with the Holy Spirit, with Life and Energy too, and when she sees Mary, before Mary speaks, she says; “Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb.” And she goes on for a while about how wonderful this is and how her own child leaped in the presence of the Holy One, as we all would.

Then she says something curious. And it is not about her. It is about Mary. And it is not worshipful or ecstatic. It is encouraging. It is a blessing. It is a recognition that just maybe Mary is under a lot of pressure; and just maybe Mary is feeling in over her head. So Elizabeth says this word of blessing to her:

“And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.”

She recognizes that maybe it might have been a little bit hard for Mary to make this great leap of faith. Maybe it is hard for us to make a great leap of faith. Maybe she and we want to do what we think God wants us to do, but it is hard to change our lives and go through shame or whatever else will come.

So it is not just: how wonderful your life will be, now that you've made these changes; but: How hard it must have been for you to make these changes; how blessed are you for making that leap of faith, for doing that unfamiliar thing, for taking that difficult path.

“Blessed is she who believed.”

Blessed indeed. It is hard to take that leap even if you are presented with it by an angel of God, and especially if you're not. Blessed are you when you do take it.

And its after that word of encouragement, that word of welcome to all her courage and all her frailty, that Mary says:

“My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my savior.”

Elizabeth's welcome, Elizabeth's encouragement has prepared the way for Mary; just as Mary's has prepared the way of the Lord; and John the Baptist's later prophesying will prepare the way for Jesus . . . and Jesus' words will prepare the way for us and for our yes to the Lord and his dream.

Mary's desire and her yes to the Lord are so very important. But Elizabeth's encouragement and sisterly blessing is so very important too.

Be an Elizabeth to some excited, prophetic Mary. 'Yes, tell me all about it.' 'You'll be fine dear.' 'What wonderful news you have – and I have good news too and we'll share it and become sisters of blessing, brothers of blessing.'

God shares his dream with us and we share it with each other.

This is where we share the dream – Church is where we share the dream. Church is all about sharing the dream.

We listen for the dream in the dark of the night, and we pay attention when God asks us to risk everything, go in a new direction, try a new thing, risk human shame even if it means Godly approval.

Then, filled with energy and Godly desire, we run in haste – here, or to a friend – to share the dream, secure in the knowledge that they'll understand, because like Mary with Elizabeth, maybe we can perceive that God is doing a good thing in their life too.

Church is full of sharers of God's dream. Share with one of these people. Call up one and say: you'll never guess what I was thinking. What do you think of this? And wait for encouragement. For sharers of the dream are also encouragers of the dream, and we dream the dream of God together until it becomes incarnate and present in our lives and walks the earth once more.

And as she shares her dream with her friend, her cousin Elizabeth, becoming even more excited in her companionship, Mary says: “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” And she goes on about how God has looked with favor on his servant, how he's shown the strength of his arm, how he's brought down the powerful from their thrones – as she looks back through history and reads it with God's eyes – how he's filled the hungry with good things and the rich he has sent empty away.

And then she stops talking, and remains with her about 3 months, it says, and then goes back home, this girl, ready to resume life, 3 months pregnant.

What happens to this huge dream of God coming out of her mouth? It happens. It takes time, but it happens. We look at history with God's eyes, as Mary did, and we see it happening; and kings being knocked down from their thrones and the long, slow, steady march of democracy, though it takes time; the growth of civil rights and human rights, though it takes time. We will see the growth of environmental redemption but that will take time too because it always does; but it will happen too because it always has – because it is part of God's dream and we look back through Scripture and we see it prophesied and see it happening!

So do not give up on God's dream for God has not given up on it. God keeps spreading it and sharing it and when Mary says yes it spreads, and when Elizabeth says yes to Mary it spreads, and when each one of us says yes to God's inspiring dream in our lives, it spreads; and when some kind Elizabeth says to us: Yes, tell me all about it dear, it spreads even more and does not stop because God cannot stop though sometimes he does take a little time.

God does take a little time, to spread his dream, because he doesn't dream it for us, he dreams it with us. He goes at our own pace, not his.

He shares it with us, as he did with Mary. And as with Mary he waits and wonders with bated breath: 'Will they say yes? Will they say yes?'

He spreads it to all these people: to Mary who gets her own dream, to Joseph who gets his, to Elizabeth, and the disciples who will say yes together so that there will be at some time a great communal Yes to God's Dream; and all these people who can work on it together.

For there is a problem with God's dream. It is the same problem we will all find when we get that really good gift under the Christmas tree. For that really good gift will say: “Some assembly required.”
You see, with God's gifts and God's dream, there is always; “Some assembly required.” He'll give you the tools, he'll give you the raw material, the people, the skills; but there is always some assembly required.

That special person in your life with whom you will work – you actually have to talk to them. You actually have to work with them. You have to share – the dream. Forgive, love, listen to – as Elizabeth with Mary.

Those skills have to be risked. Those attempts might meet with failure before they meet with success.

There is some assembly required but eventually the gizmo works; the relationship, the skill, the vision, the adventure, it all comes out right in the end!

But there is the work. And along with the work, also the blessing of the ever-present Jesus, the ever-present God, born of Mary, present with us now.

He raises up the lowly. He dos it to us, now. He brings down the mighty. He'll do that to us too, if necessary. There will be liberty and justice, as others in our history have dreamed. We're still working on: “for all.”

But it will come. He's made a promise. He's shared it with us in our dreams. Will we work on it with Him, and share it with others? He'll help. We might find that a lot of other people will help us too.